BOSTON — Cory Schneider will be greeted by family and friends and by cheers and jeers on Saturday afternoon.

The surprise decision to start the Vancouver Canucks backup goaltender ahead of the red-hot Roberto Luongo was based upon allowing Schneider to play in his hometown against the Boston Bruins — regardless of the optics of not allowing the starter to exorcise a TD Garden ghost.

After all, Luongo allowed 15 goals against in less than seven playoff periods in Boston and was yanked in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup final after giving up three goals on eight shots.

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But Luongo is also coming off a 3-0 blanking of the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday and is on a 9-2-2 run a 1.82 goals-against average with three shutouts. He has allowed just 24 goals in those 13 games.

Handing the ball to Schneider though isn’t as big a leap as you’d think. Schneider, as Vancouver fans can attest, is not your normal backup. He has an 8-5-0 record with a 2.16 GAA and a .931 save percentage.

“You could make a case to play one or the other and in this instance I decided on Cory,” Canucks coach Alain Vigneault said following a Friday practice at Harvard University. “You could make a case for Lui wanting to get back at it or Schneids getting a chance after five years to play in front of friends and family. But at the end of the day, the decision is mine and I’ll keep my final reasons to myself.

“Lui just got off a shutout and is playing real well. I just decided Schneids was the guy.”

Schneider was a standout at Boston College and has long idolized the Bruins.

He had hoped to play Saturday and so too did Luongo.

The decision is at least curious because the Canucks have purposely played Luongo against elite competition to get him over some mental humps.

But all that is not something Schneider is dwelling upon. He’s now facing the league’s top-scoring team that has also surrendered the fewest goals and is coming off a 9-0 pummelling of the Calgary Flames on Thursday — just one day after a 6-1 triumph in New Jersey.

“I wanted to play in my hometown but more importantly to play a big game for our team against the best team in the league right now,” said Schneider. “It will be a big challenge and I hope I can step up and deliver a big game. As far as a midseason game goes, this one is going to get a lot of attention and hype.”

As for Luongo, he was more concerned about beating the Stanley Cup champions than the optics surrounding the fact that he’s not playing.

“I would have liked to play the game, but in fairness to Cory he’s from here and deserved to play — I’m all for it,” said Luongo. “I knew it could have gone either way. I’ve always played well in this building but it didn’t translate to the final last year. I don’t get intimidated by building and I enjoy it more when there’s hostility and it gets me going.”